Sudan military scraps deal with protest group, call for snap elections

Sudan's military leaders say they are scrapping all existing agreements with the main opposition coalition and will hold elections within nine months.

The announcement came as the military faced mounting international condemnation for their violent attack on protesters in the capital, Khartoum, which reportedly left at least 30 dead.

The US said it was a "brutal attack".

The decision by the Transitional Military Council (TMC) is likely to fuel anger among protest leaders who have demanded preparations for elections during a longer transitional period led by a civilian administration.

The TMC had been under both domestic and international pressure to hand over power to civilians.

The TMC, which has governed Sudan since President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in a coup in April, and negotiators for the pro-democracy movement had also settled on the structure of a new administration.

But the TMC's head, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement broadcast on state television that they had decided to "stop negotiating with the Alliance for Freedom and Change and cancel what had been agreed on".

An election in nine months time would take place under "regional and international supervision", he added.

The announcement came after leaders of the pro-democracy movement, who demand that a civilian government take over the running of the country, said they were stopping all contact with the TMC and called a general strike.

The security services moved on the main protest site early on Monday, activists said, and heavy gunfire could be heard in video footage.

The demonstrators have been occupying the square in front of the military headquarters since 6 April, five days before Bashir was overthrown.

In a statement read on national television, the military council expressed its "sorrow for the way events escalated", saying the operation had targeted "trouble makers and petty criminals".

Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into sustained protests that culminated in the armed forces moving to oust Bashir.